'Heartbeat of community' closing with immediate effect
Picture: Pupil Collins, Past Meeting Now The Of The Member Mullins The And Larry Cllr A Christine With Kenneth Staff 'past Centre Cummins Centre Pupil' At After
Families and staff were expected to protest on Monday at the closure of a creche and community centre in Cork city
Staff at the childcare facility were told via text last week that their centre, described as “the heartbeat of the community”, was closing with immediate effect.
But a meeting is now scheduled between Cork City Childcare and a childcare provider for Monday, which may bring one step closer to being saved.
More than 100 children were due to start at the pre-school and creche soon, with some due to start as early as this Thursday.
Christine Mullins, Siptu member and room lead who has worked at for 12 years, said staff, have been left "in limbo".
“We still have no answers. It’s very, very frustrating."
A meeting is understood to be scheduled between Cork City Childcare, which supports childcare provision in Cork, and a childcare provider to work on a solution. The childcare provider may in future be able to take over the running of .
The Church owns the building and the Bishop of Cork, Fintan Gavin, has said that he is supportive of efforts to keep the community resource functioning.
"The Bishop was shocked like everybody else in the community to hear of the news of the closure of Family Centre in Churchfield, Cork last week and is conscious of the huge effect it will have on the community," a statement from the Dioceses of Cork and Ross said.
"The Bishop and the Trustees will be happy to engage with any new potential operators to ensure that the centre can continue its services."
Sinn Fein TD Thomas Gould encouraged the community to come out and support children and staff at the vigil outside the Churchfield childcare facility at 1pm on Tuesday.
“We have to keep the family centre open. It would be a huge loss to the community if it closed. The old company is in liquidation. We have to focus now on keeping it open so that children have a place to go and so staff can keep their jobs.
“I’m optimistic that it can be done but there is a lot of work to do."
Fianna Fáil councillor Tony Fitzgerald welcomed the "positive" development that discussions with a childcare provider would begin on Tuesday.
"I wish the discussions well. I know that they will keep the interests of children and the staff in mind in their deliberations. Hopefully, it will result in successful outcomes but there's a lot of work to be done yet."
Meanwhile, no clear reasons for the sudden closure have emerged, although financial pressures, bureaucracy and burnout of board members have been mentioned as contributory factors.
Cork North Central TD Mick Barry slammed what he described as the "secrecy" surrounding the decision to close the centre in Churchfield.
The People Before Profit-Solidarity TD said that today's protest at the gates of the centre at 1pm is likely to be the largest protest seen on the Northside since the water charges campaign.
"There is a lot of secrecy surrounding the decision to close . It's well-known that there were talks taking place with another family centre about taking over operations but it seems that there was a last-minute problem and the deal fell through," Mr Barry said.
"The staff and the community have a right to know exactly what the problem was so that there can be an attempt to fix it and save the centre. There should be no secrets here.
"This will be an important theme of tomorrow's protest at the centre which has all the signs of being the largest protest on the Northside since the days of the water charges."
The centre has been in operation for some 50 years and many of the 14 staff members have worked there for more than 20 years.